County Executive Falk Announces Full Scale Terrorism Exercise in Cross Plains Saturday

October 03, 2003
Ray Peña, Dane County Emergency Management, 608/267-2542 Dave Carlson, Public Information Officer, 608/242-6424
County Executive

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk today announced that a full scale terrorism response exercise will be held Saturday, October 4, 9 a.m. to noon, in the Village of Cross Plains. The exercise, coordinated by the Dane County Department of Emergency Management, will test the “Mass Casualty Plan” in responding to an incident involving multiple victims, and on-site emergency decontamination of the victims. The exercise will complete a series of three exercises that started in June and continued in August, testing the county’s and first responders’ procedures in dealing with terrorism and other incidents that result in mass casualties. "Exercises are designed to examine how well we can respond to disaster," said County Executive Falk. "These three exercises are based on a terrorism scenario, but what we learn from them applies to other kinds of emergencies, especially those involving hazardous chemicals. The involvement of so many people and agencies, all willing to work and learn together, shows just how important public safety is to us all." Agencies involved in the exercises have included: Cross Plains Fire, EMS, Police and village administration; mutual aid agencies from Middleton, Mt. Horeb, Black Earth and Waunakee; Dane County Emergency Management, Sheriff”s Office, Public Safety Communications, Coroner and Human Services; Madison Fire; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Emergency Management; Badger Chapter, American Red Cross; Amateur Radio Emergency Services; FBI; Public Health Consortium #10; area hospitals; and other agencies and volunteers. The Dane County Emergency Operations Center will also take part in the exercise. The exercise program is supported by grants from state and federal agencies. Since 1998, Dane County has secured more than $3 million to develop specialized response capabilities. Funds have been used to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect the first responders and to develop county-wide systems in support of decontamination and mass casualty response. Grant dollars have also been used to purchase detection and monitoring equipment. # # #